Here's another quick Strasburg note. By striking out 14 batters without issuing a walk tonight, Strasburg (obviously) became the fastest player to accomplish this feat. Here are the other players with a 14+ K , 0 BB game within their first 100 games. (1920-1939,1952-2010)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Game Finders.
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I had forgotten how much trouble Gooden had with keeping runners close to the bag. Those five steals bring back memories of announcers harping on how important it was for him to keep guys on first... at first. The color guy would often chime in and say "lucky for Gooden, few guys reach first base to begin with".

Yeah, I remember that game by Wood, and it's still the most dominating pitching performance I've ever seen. He looked like a professional pitching to amateurs that day. And I agree, the one hit was an infield single that easily could've been an error.

A couple of interesting tidbits about that game, first - the first eight batters (combined - both teams) of that game struck out. I wonder what the record is for most combined consecutive strikeouts to start a game. Second - it's easy to forget that Wood's opponent that day, Shane Reynolds, pitched a fine game himself. He took a complete game loss, giving up just one earned run and striking out 10 of his own. So there were 30 combined strikeouts in that game. I also wonder what the record is for most combined strikeouts in a 9-inning game.

Also, seeing the back-to-back games Gooden pitched, as a rookie, striking out 16 and walking 0, reminds me, as it did JohnnyTwisto, of just how dominant Gooden was at the beginning of his career. I have to repeat Gooden's numbers for the 50-start stretch spanning the last month and a half of his rookie year ('84), all of his second year ('85'), and the first month of his third year ('86), because they're so ridiculous: 37-5, 1.38 ERA, 25 CG, 12 SHO, and 412 Ks in 404.2 IP. Look at those numbers for a second. For a year and a half, between the ages of 19 and 21, 1 in 4 starts was a shutout. That has to be one of the most dominant 50 start stretches of any pitcher, ever.

So, as great as Strasburg was last night - and no doubt about it, he was great - let's not forget that there have been equally as spectacular pitching phenoms that have come along.

The Gooden stretch reminds me of a Bob Gibson stretch which bookends his 1968. From 9/7/67 to 5/25/69, he pitched 48 games: 31-12, 1.18 ERA, 420 IP, 367 K, 91 BB, 36 CG, 16 SHO. What makes it even more amazing is that it begins immediately after he had been out six weeks after his leg was broken by a line drive.

The record for most combined strikeouts in a 9-inning game is 31, set by Texas (18) and Seattle (13), 13 July 1997. In a 20-inning game, the Angels (26) and Athletics (17) combined for 43 strikeouts, 9 July 1971.

Hey, thanks for the answer for that one, Gerry. Should've figured, a game started by Randy Johnson. Funny that Texas struck out 18 times in that game, but still managed to win. Anyway, so the Kerry Wood game came close.

Meanwhile, the 20-inning game you mentioned was a game that was won 1-0 in the bottom of the 20th. Through the top of the 18th inning, each team had only used two pitchers. A far cry from today's game, indeed.